Architecture

Kaja Kühl and June Williamson explain how improved parking design can spur suburban downtown development in line with community goals of attracting young people, providing affordable housing, and stimulating local economies.

Christine Gaspar of the Center for Urban Pedagogy walks us through the core concepts of New York City’s zoning code and describes the strategies the organization employs to break down its complexity.

Architect and educator Karen Van Lengen encourages us to listen more carefully to the richness of our aural environment and explains why architects should design with sound in mind.

Sociologist Colin Jerolmack explains how the inescapable pigeon can help us understand the broader systems — natural, physical, and cultural — that build our experience of the urban environment.

Maria Aiolova of Terreform ONE discusses the design group's ONE Prize, an annual design and science award that this year focused on how cities can adapt to future challenges of extreme weather, yielding winning proposals that address coastal conditions from Staten Island to Tokyo to Sumatra.

Adam Greenfield critiques the prevailing definition of the "smart city" and calls for an alternative vision that understands and responds to the messy realities of human existence.

Farzana Gandhi, Anusha Venkataraman, and Gabriela Alvarez explain the motivations behind and the design for a mobile health and wellness unit, sharing how the project can use a community's traditions to help solve some contemporary challenges.

In advance of The Architectural League's Beaux Arts Ball on September 28th at the 69th Regiment Armory, we take a look back at the civic and social role of National Guard armories in the American city.